No party wall between our neighbours loft

[Petegrancan]

Hi there new to forum and would appreciate any advice
Our neighbour recently died and the executers have put the house on the market.
As there is no wall (only stud partition with plasterboard on our side) we have asked the selling agents to notify the executers and any prospective purchasers. As yet, no one has contacted us about it and we are worried that the agent/executer may sell the property without the wall being built. So.... are we able to insist that the wall is built up? If so, can we prevent/holdup the sale?

Also, we share a mains water supply. From the stop tap in the road, into my neighbours house then into ours. It has caused problems with our neighbours boiler in the past (low pressure) and we have been told the pressure isn’t sufficient for us to have a combi boiler. So this begs the question; now that the house is going to be sold and, more than likely, will have a greater demand on water are we can I insist that we jointly have the water supply’s ‘split’ i.e. separate supply to each and both share the cost?
Many thanks in anticipation
Pete

 

[^woody^]

Why do you think that it is the neighbours responsibility to build this wall?

Its a shared party wall, what is wrong with you building the wall up? But if there is already a plasterboard partition then that what is wrong with that?

You can raise a dispute, but it will be a nonsense one and wont hold up the sale

And no, you can't insist that the water supply is split. But what you can do is sorry it out yourself

 

[Petegrancan]

The reason for my query about the party wall was sparked by the selling agent asking if we had access to our loft as the neighbours has no access. We told him that we had and the party wall was plasterboard. HE said oh, thats not up to regs!! So we wanted to get it sorted before the house was sold. Hopefully heading off conflict (maybe) with an owner we know nothing about.

I didn't say it was their sole responsibility !!!!

The water issue wasn't raised with with our elderly neighbour becassue we didn't want to stress her. It would be of mutual benefit to both, so once again i thought that it would be better to get it sorted before a/the sale and pay half.

So i take it the agents wrong?

Thanks for your help so far.

 

[noseall]

So i take it the agents wrong?

Yup.

 

[TheVictorian]

Yup again, I've bought a victorian semi within the last year and the party wall in the loft is just plasterboard and is totally up to regs according.

We also have a shared water supply with the stopcock outside their house and I'm pretty sure it goes from their kitchen under the floor and then into our kitchen. However I havent had a good reason to get this changed yet.

 

[jeds]

A single sided plasterboard partition isn't 'up to regs'. But the question is; is there an obligation that it should be? The answer is; no there isn't.

Of course you can split the water supply. Contact the water board, ask them to send you the appropriate forms, fill out and send off. They will quote for the works. Pay the fee. Water board fit you a new supply. Simples.

 

[chapeau]

Re the wall.

Purchaser's surveyor might flag it as not being up to current regs (like they do with electrics all the bleeding time).

Seller will say so what and quite rightly so.

Purchaser will naively think surveyors know what they are doing, it means the house is going to burn down, and it needs fixing or £5k off price.

Seller can either put a wall up, cut the price, or not sell the house.

If he approaches you to contribute you can either say yes or no.

If you say no then chances are the seller will do it anyway, and if you are nice you can agree to have it done on boundary line to maximise their attic space.

If you decide to sell your house then it becomes your problem, not until then.